Archive for March, 2007
Germany: Most Evil Woman Criminal Released
Monday, March 26th, 2007Besides New Orleans, if I were a criminal, I think I’d commit my crimes in Germany. This woman received five life sentences for various and sundry murders and only served 25 years. And she was released early so she didn’t have to speak to the press. Yup, crime pays in some places.
H/T Betsy Newmark
Iran Can Just Try American Hostage Taking
Monday, March 26th, 2007Americans can shoot the scum in self-defense. Excellent.
Day Care Bad for Baby Behavior
Monday, March 26th, 2007In the kid eat kid world of Day Care, is it any surprise that a child who has been part of that system has more behavior problems than kids who are at home, relaxed, with mom or dad?
And then, as the kid gets older and exhibits the bad behavior in school, he gets doped up on Ritalin and denied recess until his behavior gets better and he starts submitting and obeying and oh, yeah, learning. The obvious solution? Extend the school day, of course. Ann Althouse notes the irony of extending the school day:
Is lengthening the school day the solution for failing schools? I think not. In fact, I think it is a morally wrong solution. It’s bad enough that children are cooped up and physically restrained for as long as they are to get through a school day. To justify that physical restraint, adults owe children a lot. If the adults are now failing to do what they owe children to justify physically restraining them, it is outrageous to attempt to make up for their own failure by increasing the restraint. What makes it worse is that the solution is inflicted disproportionately on minority kids. Oh, but it’s a benefit! It’s not as if we’re proposing to put them in jail during those long afternoons when they might otherwise be roaming the streets.
I don’t think it’s a race issue. It’s a gender issue. Sure, girls might be more aggressive with years of Day Care, too, but it’s the boys that are being drugged and dragged indoors. When I was in third grade, (my son’s grade) we had a 1/2 hour recess in the morning, 1/2 hour in the afternoon and 45 minutes to one hour at lunch time, plus gym class twice a week. And the boys were still rowdy! And in the same breath, educators and government officials and doctors will kvetch over fat kids. Good grief! Let them run around and be kids.
Angioplasty
Monday, March 26th, 2007Medical “accepted practice” turned on it’s ear. Changing lifestyle makes the best long-term difference for heart patients.
I know, boring. Not nearly as sexy as heart surgery.
Duke (non) Rape Update: Three Million Reasons This Prosecution Was Wrong
Monday, March 26th, 2007Are you rich enough to defend yourself in a false prosecution, because the accused Duke lacrosse players have accrued over three million in legal fees. There’s a way you can help with the legal fees at the link. How many people, even so-called “privileged” ones can afford millions in legal fees? Imagine being the parent of a falsely accused son and then having to pay those bills.
Speaking of worn out clichés, Newsbusters shines a light on The New York Times sports reporter Selena Roberts. Even after all the evidence of both the Duke players innocence and Mike Nifong’s guilt, she manages to see the miscarriage of justice as beneficial.
Roberts seems to think the false rape charges were worth it in the end, if it opens up Duke to “change,” and seems to think that partying and misbehavior on campus (not to mention “public urination”) is the exclusive realm of spoiled white athletes.“What’s new? Nothing really. But the opportunity to change this chronic campus dynamic is up to Duke. For now, administrators and faculty members seem earnest in giving it a college try.
“That would be a welcomed development to citizens who had long complained about the raucous partying and misbehavior of athletes in their neighborhoods. There were red flags about the Duke lacrosse team, including a history of off-campus conduct problems.
“Apparently, no player could hold his own beer because public urination was an issue.”
[…]
“But if you take on the athlete culture that was exposed, not the alleged crime, there can be one healthy legacy to a scandal.
“A dismissal doesn’t mean forget everything. Amnesia would be a poor defense to the next act of athlete privilege.”
It’s not shocking that a Times reporter is biased against white men. Unfortunately, it’s not shocking that “men of the cloth” would judge a matter before it’s heard, either. KC Johnson catalogs the sins of the clergy and it’s discouraging. He concludes with this anecdote:
One lacrosse parent who attended the service approached Fr. Vetter afterwards, reminded him of the presumption of innocence, and said that part of the priest’s job was to minister to Catholic players on the team.Vetter’s response? “Tell them to confess their sins first.”
This case laid bare the bias that pervades institutions supposedly dedicated to truth: the press, the clergy, the law, the academy. Too many American bastions of learning are infected with a pernicious case of political correctness. It changes the mind and blinds one to justice or even critical thought. Unfortunately, innocent people have suffered as a result.
On a positive note, Barack Obama calls for an Department of Justice investigation into Mike Nifong’s actions. As KC Johnson notes, Obama is uniquely qualified to make this call–he was a law school professor.
On a sad note, Reade Seligmann’s attorney died of a sudden heart attack and will not get the satisfaction of seeing his client fully exonerated.
Bible Class at a Public School Near Me
Monday, March 26th, 2007Interesting developments. I love the Time article, implying that “liberals” need to know their bible better if only to argue against conservatives more effectively. The idea used as an example:
HERE IS ONE OF PROTHERO’S FAVORITE stories of Bible ignorance. In 1995 a federal appeals court upheld the overturn of a death sentence in a Colorado kidnap-rape-murder case because jurors had inappropriately brought in extraneous material–Bibles–for an unsanctioned discussion of the Exodus verse “an eye for eye, tooth for tooth … whoever … kills a man shall be put to death.” The Christian group Focus on the Family complained, “It is a sad day when the Bible is banned from the jury room.” Who’s most at fault here? The jurors, who perhaps hadn’t noticed that in the Gospel of Matthew Jesus rejects the eye-for-an-eye rule, word for word, in favor of turning the other cheek? The Focus spokesman, who may well have known of Jesus’ repudiation of the old law but chose to ignore it? Or any liberal who didn’t know enough to bring it up?
This argument is even more nuanced than suggested. The “turn the other cheek” retort carried to its absurd end creates anarchy–no punishment for any crime is the often sophomoric reading of the New Testament. Jesus also said to “render to Caesar, what is due Caesar, render to God, God’s”, which implies that Jesus fully understood that there needed to be a law in the land and that it needed to be complied with, too. In fact, had Jesus been staunchly anti-war, anti-law enforcement, surely He would have mentioned that salient fact to the Roman Centurian, but he didn’t. He also wouldn’t announce his second coming with Trumpets alerting the world to war. He’d be dropping flower petals and singing Imagine.
The confusion suggests that the solution is Bible learning. People need more religious education. I’ve made the argument before that one can hardly be considered educated without a firm biblical understanding. Christians, especially need to get their noses in the Good Book. We can hardly share the “hope that lies within” if we don’t the truth of God’s word.
I’m all for this new development. Since kids aren’t getting educated in church, they need to at least have an understanding of the Bible as literature.
Naughty Naps
Monday, March 26th, 2007Being a night-owl in a day-driven society can be tough on a girl. For whatever reason, I’m wired to think bigger, better (or maybe it’s just medium-sized, barely average) thoughts from the hours 10 -1 a.m. Drives me crazy, really. As much as I’d like to conform to societal expectations, it’s been a futile effort thus far and napping is the least of it.
So, I’m a big fan of the perfect nap. There are perfect naps, you know. The kind where you lay down, feeling a little naughty and slip into sweet, stolen slumber. For me, waking refreshed and getting a good second wind for the afternoon and evening, makes for a wonderful day. According to research, it contributes to my gut-butt issues (less sleep after my compensatory nap). This makes napping that much naughtier. I’m short on naughty in my life; it’s pathetic, actually, that my nap qualifies as naughty, but that’s the state of my 1950s life. Watch out! I could be sipping martinis at 5:00 p.m. soon. And feather-dusting. And wearing pumps and cone bras. Probably, not. Naps will have to be the naughtiest I get, those and Coca-Colas.
Well, another napper, someone whom I respect immensely (no, not Winston Churchill, though he was a big napper, too) James Lileks, naps without guilt.
I used to sleep in until noon. Those were the carefree college days – or, more accurately, the carefree college days in which I had stopped going to classes. (A small but important distinction.) Oh, I had spent a few years getting up for early classes, sitting half-awake in dark rooms with a cup of cafeteria coffee until Prof. Canedy jolted everyone awake with another exceptional lecture on the miracles of Renaissance Art, but towards the end of my college career I took one afternoon class, wrote a lot, waited tables at night, played a lot of pinball, and argued over The World in a booth at the Valli after bar rush. I’d go home, listen to Larry King in the dark, drift off, and wake on the cold, shame-draped steps of Noon.
Sleeping ’til noon, “shame-draped”. Now I nap, shame-draped and naughty. Well, I’m due a naughty nap. We’ll see if I get one this week.
Anna Nicole "Accidental" Death
Monday, March 26th, 2007Anna Nicole died from an “accidental overdose” and fanatics now have a new Elvis, Princess Diana, Marilyn Monroe, name your self-destructive, beloved star. What does it say about our society that this generation’s tragic star was really an untalented woman who used her body to succeed? Elvis could sing. Princess Diana served. Marilyn Monroe could act. What did Anna do?
She stripped, she sold her body, she used drugs and alcohol, she enlarged her breasts. I guess she’s just the post-modern feminist. Well, with her “accidental” death, there’s plenty of room to keep the conspiracy alive.
Saying the Acceptable, Filtering the Incorrect
Monday, March 26th, 2007Those who are always in step with the “moral fashion” might not actually be thinking– just reflexively barking out the “accepted” world view.
These two points remind me of many liberal people I know in New York (and elsewhere): they get their ideas from liberal opinion leaders, and they hardly realize it, and they believe they’re open-minded, even though they won’t brook disagreement with their adopted views.
H/T Glenn Reynolds
Tolkien’s New Book
Sunday, March 25th, 2007Now this is why I read blogs. VITAL information must get out!
